Dorothy Day

Servant of God Dorothy Day (1897–1980) was a pacifist, social commentator, journalist, convert to Catholicism, and cofounder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Day was baptized in the Episcopal Church. As a young adult, she was a political radical and socialist, sympathizing with anarchists and communists. Day was increasingly drawn to Catholicism because she saw it as the Church of immigrants and the poor. After giving birth to her daughter, Tamar, in 1926, Day converted to Catholicism. Day cofounded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933 with Peter Maurin to live and spread the vision of Catholic social teaching.

Day was the author of several books, including her autobiography, The Long Loneliness. She honored by the University of Notre Dame with the Laetare Medal in 1972. She died in 1980 in New York and her cause for canonization was launched by Cardinal John J. O’Connor, Archbishop of New York, in 1997 on what would have been her one-hundredth birthday.